Alternative Africa

Top Menu

  • Home
  • About Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use
  • Contact Us

Main Menu

  • Home
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business
  • Environment
  • Politics
  • Sports
  • Reports
    • Africa-Observers
      • Read Reports
      • Submit a story
  • MORE
    • Health
    • News Now
    • World
    • Technology
Sign in / Join

Login

Welcome! Login in to your account
Lost your password?

Lost Password

Back to login
  • Home
  • About Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use
  • Contact Us

logo

Alternative Africa

  • Home
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business
  • Environment
  • Politics
  • Sports
  • Reports
    • Africa-Observers
      • Read Reports
      • Submit a story
  • MORE
    • Health
    • News Now
    • World
    • Technology
  • No change in horizon in Uganda as “lord Museveni” takes early election lead, rival alleges fraud

  • UK opens largest temporary mortuary as high covid deaths continue

  • Capitol Riot Fallout: Colleges Rescind Honorary Degrees Awarded To Trump

  • Coated tongue becoming more widespread as coronavirus symptom-Expert

  • Africa gets 1st vaccine doses from COVAX in March, mass vaccination in June-WHO

News Now
Home›News Now›An African legend – and me

An African legend – and me

By alternativeafrica
October 15, 2017
648
0
Share:
Becky Branford (top middle) meets President Thomas Sankara in Ouagadougou in 1986
Image caption Becky (aged 11) meeting Thomas Sankara in Ouagadougou in 1987, shortly before his assassination

One picture brings it all back home to me again: Me, an 11-year-old London school pupil, gazing up smiling into the eyes of Thomas Sankara, then president of Burkina Faso.

The picture is too dark; it isn’t particularly well composed – the sound engineer is in the way, getting my fellow interviewer, 14-year-old Dan Meigh, ready to film our encounter.

But it’s the kindly warmth in Capt Sankara’s eyes as he looks back at me that takes me back; the sense of calm composure, of someone at ease with himself, and at ease with his young, potentially unpredictable young interlocutors.

It’s the simple furniture, the lack of opulence, the lack of Western power-dressing in favour of African fabrics and bare arms.

Little did we realise at the time that we would become the last non-Africans to interview the Burkina Faso leader.

On 15 October 1987, he was assassinated in a coup led by his erstwhile brother-in-arms and best friend Blaise Campaoré – who went on to lead the country for the next 27 years.

We had been in Burkina Faso as winners of a competition run by the BBC news programme for children, Newsround – sent to look at projects run by Sport Aid, a famine-relief fundraising campaign.

Image caption The interview took place in the spartan presidential palace

Hearing the news of Capt Sankara’s death back home in London, as editing of our programme was still under way, I was saddened and shocked, but the shock was soon superseded by the interview requests that came flooding in from prime-time chat shows, where I was jokily quizzed about bagging a “scoop” at such a young age.

It was only as I grew older that I began to appreciate the legendary status of the man I had interviewed – despite some criticism of his rule, his admirers remain numerous and ardent – and of the symbolism of his murder in the political context of post-colonial Africa.


Thomas Sankara – ‘Africa’s Che Guevara’

Image copyright AFP
  • A captain in army of Upper Volta, a former French colony in West Africa
  • Instrumental in the coup that ousted Col Saye Zerbo as president in 1982
  • Took power from Maj Jean-Baptiste Ouedraogo in an internal power struggle and became president in August 1983
  • Adopted radical left-wing policies and sought to reduce government corruption
  • Changed the name of the country from Upper Volta to Burkina Faso, which means “the land of upright men”
  • Criticised by some as an undemocratic authoritarian
  • Killed in mysterious circumstances by a group of soldiers in October 1987, aged 37
  • The anti-imperialist revolutionary is still hugely popular across Africa.

Thomas Sankara’s legacy


For Capt Sankara was pursuing a political project described as revolutionary in scope. And unlike many other African icons, such as South Africa’s Steve Biko, he did – at least for a time – have the power to begin trying to make his vision a reality.

Tree planting

I witnessed some of it for myself when I was there.

As I have said, he did away with the ornaments enjoyed by many leaders.

We saw few guards at the presidential residence, something Capt Sankara may have come to regret.

Outside there were no luxury cars – we heard he had given them to the national lottery as prizes, replacing the fleet with cheap Renaults.

One of Capt Sankara’s priorities was fighting the desertification of his country.

Image caption People built “diguettes” to fight desertification and improve crop yield

He told us he wanted to make it a commonplace that everyone should plant a tree on their birthday – we planted our own.

He had sent 200,000 people to plant trees and cordon off land, preventing nomadic animals from stripping the land of vegetation.

We saw home-grown solutions being implemented to problems of malnutrition and poverty – for instance, people building “diguettes”, stone walls which stop fertile topsoil running off arid agricultural land when it rains, permitting more abundant crops to be grown.

Statistics suggest that the policies Capt Sankara implemented during his short four years in office yielded some startling results.

Image copyright AFP
Image caption Many more children went to school under Thomas Sankara’s rule

School attendance went from 6% to 22%, millions of children were vaccinated and 10 million trees were planted. The number of women in government soared, female genital mutilation was banned, and contraception was promoted.

Like me, Lamine Konkobo, a Burkinabé journalist with BBC Afrique, was only a child when Capt Sankara was killed – and, like me, he only came to fully understand his political importance as he grew up.

“I was growing up in a village where Sankara was seen as a challenging figure in terms of the ideas he promoted, in terms of women’s independence and empowerment, for instance,” he told me.

“That did not sit well in the countryside.”

Exercise made compulsory

Capt Sankara had challenged the old centres of power in Burkina Faso: Traditional leaders and big business.

So among them there was a sense of relief when his rule was over, a relief shared by Lamine’s father.

Most young people supported Capt Sankara, but misgivings about his rule even extended to progressive figures, including some intellectuals, who felt his quest to develop the country had an overly paternalistic, authoritarian edge.

Media playback is unsupported on your device

Media captionA look back at Thomas Sankara’s time in power

President Sankara made physical exercise mandatory, for example, so he could harness the powers of the population for his projects and do it without relying on external aid.

Workers accused of not pulling their weight were sometimes tried in “revolutionary tribunals”, which were supposed to target corruption.

But the perceptions of Capt Sankara changed after Mr Campaoré came to power.

Under President Campaoré’s programme of “rectification”, power was restored to traditional leaders and businessmen.

Image copyright AFP
Image caption “Justice for Sankara” became a rallying cry decades after his demise

Opponents were assassinated and a market economy was implemented that many blamed for impoverishing the majority and enriching a tiny elite, including Mr Campaoré and his own family.

These changes brought about a reappraisal of Capt Sankara’s achievements among many – including Lamine’s father.

“After [Sankara] died, we discussed his integrity, his public service, and my dad said everyone had been defending their own interests and had not been not open enough to hear him. ‘Now I understand he was much better than what we have now,’ my dad said. He died a repentant man.”

Although Mr Campaoré, who was overthrown in 2014, erased Capt Sankara’s project, ultimately he failed in his aim to erase his vision, Lamine believes.

“This is the real legacy of Thomas Sankara. The ideas he tried to promote remain despite all the efforts of Blaise Campaoré to get people to forget.

“Ultimately those ideas were what spurred people to rise up in 2014 against Blaise Campaoré: They confronted armed police officers and soldiers and they made their point.

“The uprising would not have been possible without young people being driven by this powerful belief within them – the belief that they were pursuing a vindication, that the regime that killed their hopes would go.”

SHARE ON:
TagsAfricaBreakingNews
Previous Article

Massive car bomb blast rocks Somalia’s Mogadishu

Next Article

Celebrating Prophet Fela Anikulapo Kuti’s ascendancy to ...

0
Shares
  • 0
  • +
  • 0
  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

alternativeafrica

Related articles More from author

  • News Now

    Azzedine Alaïa: Popular Tunisian couturier dies aged 77

    November 18, 2017
    By alternativeafrica
  • News NowWorld

    Ecuador cuts Julian Assange’s internet access at London embassy

    March 29, 2018
    By alternativeafrica
  • AfricaNews Now

    Tunisian leader signs key decrees on first day at work after health scare

    July 5, 2019
    By alternativeafrica
  • News Now

    Zambia’s Bwalya to vet coaches for Uganda job

    October 18, 2017
    By alternativeafrica
  • News Now

    Mane, Salah strike in big Liverpool win

    December 7, 2017
    By alternativeafrica
  • News Now

    The Nigeria Football Federation says it will now switch focus to women’s team

    December 5, 2017
    By alternativeafrica

Leave a reply Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

You might be interested

  • AfricaHealthNews Now

    Egypt records 783 new coronavirus cases, 11 deaths

  • BusinessNews Now

    Nigeria: Kano pays N9bn outstanding pensioners retirement benefits

  • BusinessNews Now

    South African poultry group seeks to suspend U.S. import quota

Timeline

  • January 15, 2021

    No change in horizon in Uganda as “lord Museveni” takes early election lead, rival alleges fraud

  • January 15, 2021

    UK opens largest temporary mortuary as high covid deaths continue

  • January 15, 2021

    Capitol Riot Fallout: Colleges Rescind Honorary Degrees Awarded To Trump

  • January 15, 2021

    Coated tongue becoming more widespread as coronavirus symptom-Expert

  • January 15, 2021

    Africa gets 1st vaccine doses from COVAX in March, mass vaccination in June-WHO

  • Popular

  • Comments

  • Lagos govt confirms first case of deadly coronavirus infection in Nigeria

    By alternativeafrica
    February 28, 2020
  • Keynote Address of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo at 2018 Oxford Africa Conference

    By PSJ Africa
    May 14, 2018
  • Morocco begins regional integration by connecting Casablanca Airport with High Speed Train

    By alternativeafrica
    January 4, 2020
  • Kenyan govt pressure Facebook for data on Kenyan users

    By alternativeafrica
    November 20, 2019
  • Nigeria: 32,000 capacity Lagos rice mill to start production in 2020

    By alternativeafrica
    December 23, 2019
  • The return of fortress conservation: why excluding people means biodiversity conservation will fail – Future agricultures
    on
    October 16, 2020

    Inside the training camp of Akashinga, Zimbabwe’s armed, all-women anti-poaching rangers

    […] In parallel to ...
  • The return of fortress conservation: why excluding people means biodiversity conservation will fail - The Zimbabwean
    on
    October 12, 2020

    Inside the training camp of Akashinga, Zimbabwe’s armed, all-women anti-poaching rangers

    […] In parallel to ...
  • Ethiopia joins Africa's Artificial Intelligence revolution | Alternative Africa
    on
    October 2, 2020

    Spending on Artificial Intelligence Systems in Africa, Middle East to top $374 million in 2020

    […] Many African countries ...
  • The 5 most popular Africans 2020
    on
    September 25, 2020

    Celebrating Congolese doctor Jean-Jacques Muyembe, the man behind breakthrough of Ebola cure

    […] Dr. Jean-Jacques Muyembe ...
  • Millitants in Central Mali Set Jail Ablaze in Attack Killing Two | taktik(z) GDI (Government Defense ...
    on
    August 11, 2020

    Fifteen gendarmes killed in another attack on Mali camp

    […] attack fol­lowed a January ...
AlternativeAfrica.com is an independent Pan African News Website dedicated primarily to influencing the negative narratives about Africa. We hope to do this by focusing and showcasing the many developmental strides sweeping across the continent.

Read more >>>

Contact Info

  • 22 Laburnum Court, Laburnum Road, Mitcham London, CR4 2NA, United Kingdom
  • +44(0)2036320939 | +44(0)7535019197 | +44(0)7305356327
  • info@alternativeafrica.com
  • Recent

  • Popular

  • Comments

  • No change in horizon in Uganda as “lord Museveni” takes early election lead, rival alleges ...

    By alternativeafrica
    January 15, 2021
  • UK opens largest temporary mortuary as high covid deaths continue

    By alternativeafrica
    January 15, 2021
  • Capitol Riot Fallout: Colleges Rescind Honorary Degrees Awarded To Trump

    By alternativeafrica
    January 15, 2021
  • Coated tongue becoming more widespread as coronavirus symptom-Expert

    By alternativeafrica
    January 15, 2021
  • Lagos govt confirms first case of deadly coronavirus infection in Nigeria

    By alternativeafrica
    February 28, 2020
  • Keynote Address of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo at 2018 Oxford Africa Conference

    By PSJ Africa
    May 14, 2018
  • Macron in Ivory Coast to launch anti-terrorism academy

    By alternativeafrica
    December 21, 2019
  • Kenyan govt pressure Facebook for data on Kenyan users

    By alternativeafrica
    November 20, 2019
  • The return of fortress conservation: why excluding people means biodiversity conservation will fail – Future agricultures
    on
    October 16, 2020

    Inside the training camp of Akashinga, Zimbabwe’s armed, all-women anti-poaching rangers

    […] In parallel to ...
  • The return of fortress conservation: why excluding people means biodiversity conservation will fail - The Zimbabwean
    on
    October 12, 2020

    Inside the training camp of Akashinga, Zimbabwe’s armed, all-women anti-poaching rangers

    […] In parallel to ...
  • Ethiopia joins Africa's Artificial Intelligence revolution | Alternative Africa
    on
    October 2, 2020

    Spending on Artificial Intelligence Systems in Africa, Middle East to top $374 million in 2020

    […] Many African countries ...
  • The 5 most popular Africans 2020
    on
    September 25, 2020

    Celebrating Congolese doctor Jean-Jacques Muyembe, the man behind breakthrough of Ebola cure

    […] Dr. Jean-Jacques Muyembe ...

Photostream

    Follow us

    • Home
    • About Us
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms of Use
    • Contact Us
    © Copyright Alternative Africa 2019. All rights reserved.